Robotics outlines overall structure of club and competitions in interest meeting on Sept. 19

Pranav Parthasarathy • September 25, 2014

The robotics team held its first interest meeting at lunch on Sept. 18, outlining the basic structure of the club and its activities for the upcoming year. The meeting began with president Archana Kikla outlining the history of the team, including community outreach through activities such as Toys for Tots, an initiative to provide underprivileged children with access to toys and games.

The meeting continued with Kikla describing FIRST, the organization governing robotics competitions. Kikla used the reputation of FIRST as an international robotics organization to try to enlist members, asking them to become a part of a competitive organization with over 5000 teams and 96 regional branches.

MVHS Robotics president senior Archana Kikla begins a presentation at the Robotics interest meeting at lunch on Sept. 18 in room F108. Kikla presented the team’s logistical framework as well as its mission and competitions. Photo by Pranav Parthasarathy.

Robotics officers then outlined the three major seasons of the year for the team: trainings, build and competitions. Trainings season lasts from Sept. to Dec. and gives novices the chance to gain experience operating tools and writing code. Build season consists of the actual construction of the robot and lasts for six weeks starting Jan. Competitions season consists of the actual competitive events, starting in late March and lasting for seven weeks.

Kikla then introduced the two major divisions of the organization: engineering and operations. Vice president of engineering senior Andrew He then outlined the basic format of the engineering division, which is tasked with constructing the robot and writing software to operate it. He then described the workload of the branch.

“We typically pick up during build season, where we work 3-4 hours per day on both weekdays and weekends,” He said.

He concluded his presentation by polling the audience, finding that 40 attendees were interested in the mechanical engineering of the robot, while 20 were interested in the electrical aspect.

Vice President of Operations senior Divek Toprani then spoke about his branch, detailing the responsibility of departments such as finance.

“We manage 40-60 thousand dollars a year, more than any other club on campus,” Toprani said.

The presentation continued with a quip from director of finance junior Jeffrey Chen.
“We don’t require a business class to join finance [unlike DECA and FBLA],” Chen said.

Kikla concluded the groups presentation by describing Cal games — a FIRST competition which new members can observe and learn from. She passed out a sign-up sheet and waiver forms at the same time, sharing her excitement for the team’s prospects this year while doing so.

The next robotics meeting will be on Friday, Sept 29 at lunch in room F108.